Ask Mavis – You’ve Got Questions, I’ve Got Answers

The links in the post below may be affiliate links. Read the full disclosureBy Mavis Butterfield on August 12, 2014 · 2 Comments

The questions keep on rolling in and so I’m going to, once again, pretend I’m smarter than I am and attempt to answer them. Keep in mind my answers are not scientific, are my own opinion and might, in fact, confuse you more. You’ve been warned.

Of course if you are an expert on any or all of the subjects covered in these questions, pretty please, for the love of Frank, pipe up in the comments below and share your knowledge with the masses. I’ve always said my I have smartie pants readers. Now’s your chance to prove it to me. And go…

Hi Mavis, I am interested in the pedometer that you use. How long does the battery last? I’ve searched Amazon to find an answer and I can’t find anything consistent. I thought I would ask the expert! Is there anyway I can give you credit when I purchase it through Amazon? I love your blog!

~ Julie

So I haven’t had my pedometer long enough to see how long a battery would last, but I read in the reviews before I bought it and many said about 2 years. As far as giving me credit, all you have to do is use my Amazon link HERE when you purchase and they’ll throw me a few cents for referring you! Easy peasy {and a huge thank you for asking. So kind of you!}.

I have a question for you since you garden and can. I have a ton of zucchini and I am going to make some relish (when I can find the time). Can I chop up and freeze the zucchini for canning later? I thought it would probably be OK since it is going to be cooked down in the canning process, but just curious if you might have any info. I have looked online and can’t really find any info about freezing before canning.

~Robin

I freeze zucchini all the time {cubed, diced, sliced, shredded}! When it grows like crazy and I can’t keep up, my favorite way to use the excess is to shred it up in 2 cup packages and freeze in my extra freezer. When winter comes and snow covers the ground, I thaw it out and feed it to my chickens. They love it. Or if I get overly ambitious, I make zucchini bread.

Do you think it’s possible for a mother of 4 to leave an office job and survive solely from my suburban back garden (yes the property is paid for except for monthly taxes and municipal fees). I am dying at my desk – literally. I sit the whole bloody day, pushing around paper – creating more pollution which I’m totally against. No exercise – too tired when I get home, and/or I think of excuses not to exercise. I’m totally anti-materialism and anti-capitalism. I SO WISH I had a backyard-mentor.

~ Magda

This is such a loaded question. On the surface, yes I do think it is possible. Do I think it’s worth it? Hmmm. You see if you love love love gardening and you convert that hobby to a full-time gig, that love might be lost and it might begin to feel like an awful chore. If you are just trying to feed your kids with your garden by consuming and/or selling/bartering your produce to buy other staples {rice, oats, wheat, meat, etc.}, it’s certainly doable.

But if you are thinking of growing a garden large enough to sell your produce to make a living, that’s another story. It would require a lot of work, and then I’m not even sure you’d be able to support your family by doing that. So I guess the answer is, what you want to do is commendable but I’d need more info to give you a more definite answer.

So about 4 years ago I planted two small mint plants that I got from the local farm store. One spearmint and one apple-mint, and now they have taken over the herb garden! What can I do with all this mint!? Can I dry it for recipes or am I just doomed for the mint to continue to take over? Now that it has flowered and the bees are dropping seeds I am sure it will come back bigger and badder next year!

~Jen

Oh man, mint plants are such aggressive spreaders! They’ll totally take over unless you show them who is boss! As your new mint seedlings grow, you will need to thin them, removing the weaker plants and allowing only the strongest to remain.

The best time to thin mint plants is when they reach 6 inches tall. You’ll want about 18 inches between them to help keep them from spreading {although they will anyway, so you have to be vigilant!}. You will probably need to go in there and cut a bunch out if you want your other herbs to survive! Oh and mint can totally be dried.

Hey Mavis, I sent you an unusually shaped piece of mail and a regular card (to determine how much longer, if any, the unusually shaped piece of mail takes). The card came back to me today, undeliverable. Hope the non-card makes it to you. A regular piece of 1st class mail from Wisconsin typically takes 4 days to Seattle.

~ Jann

I got the unusually shaped piece of mail and it totally made my day. All I could think about was how long it took you to clean out that peanut butter jar! Ha! I so wish the letter would have arrived as well, because that would have been fascinating to see the difference in delivery times. Thanks for the fun surprise!

What is causing my hens to lay eggs out in the compost. I do not have a rooster and just 2 hens. All of a sudden they won’t lay in their hen house. This is the second time I had to hunt down their nest. How can I get them to lay in their box?

~Linda

I’ve heard this is fairly common. Try plastic eggs or golf balls, because those are really handy for encouraging hens to lay in certain places.

Also, keeping your hens closed into the coop for a few days to get them used to laying inside again can be the answer {if weather permits, etc}. From everything I’ve read, they’ll probably just go back to laying in their nest on their own, if you have the patience to wait it out!

I noticed an orange tint to the water when I poured it out that I had used to sanitize and then can your carrot cake jam in. Turns out it was rust from the canning rack. Do you know if the jam is still safe to eat after sanitizing in this water with rust in it? BTW the jam is very, very good! Thanks.

~ Diane

Rust is really just iron oxide, a rather benign substance in small quantities. You probably shouldn’t eat a pound of it though! 😉 But your jam should be just fine.

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Comments

My elderly neighbors back in the seventies and eighties grew, harvested, canned, dried and froze @ 85% of their food. It can be done. I am curious, though, if Magda is going to raise flax, cotton and sheep for clothing. Maybe barter for garments? Will she give up her car? Furniture? It always strikes me as ironic when someone says they are “totally anti-materialism and capitalism” yet is using technology to say it. People ARE consumers – even the first man was!; we can be good stewards, though, if fact we are called to be.
Perhaps Magda can begin with small plots (following your excellent examples) and go from there.

Magda, it’s a grand idea but there are lots of practical considerations such as start up capital. Get yourself a copy of “weekend homesteader” and read it. One thing you need is some source of supplemental income.

Robin, by all means freeze your surplus zucchini but don’t try to can it after it’s been frozen. The freezing process breaks down the plant fibers somewhat and that’s fine for things like zucchini bread, fritters, or even just cooking for a side dish. However, when you can the produce is subjected to intense heat and with that come a further breakdown of the plant fibers. This is particularly true of soft flesh vegetables like summer squash. I have not canned relish from zucchini but I did try to can some in a chow chow mix after freezing and I wound up with little bits of zucchini rind but but the flesh just disintegrated. If you have your heart set on making zucchini relish after freezing the zucchini, try a refrigerator version that doesn’t require much cooking.